Committee Travel Policies

All travel arrangements must be made with Short's Travel Management, by calling 866/655-9215.  By making all of the Association's travel arrangements with Short's, the NCAA is able to obtain discounts through the airlines that are based on our volume of business.  If a committee member feels that they cannot use Short's for their arrangements, please call the NCAA travel department at 317/917-6757, to discuss the situation and ask for an exception to the policy.

You may maintain a frequent traveler profile in Short's online system to capture you travel preferences for seat assignments, contact information and frequent traveler identification numbers.  These profiles can be accessed via a link in your e-mail meeting invitation or by going to www.shortstravel.com/ncaaprofile.  When accessing the Web site, you will be asked to create a unique login code and password so that you may update your profile securely at any time.

There is no first-class travel.  If a committee member would like to travel first-class, the NCAA will pay up to the cost of the lowest available non-refundable airfare and the committee member would be responsible for the difference in the tickets.

The NCAA will pay the cost of the lowest available class of inventory for committee members.  They must pay the difference if they wish to fly in a higher class of inventory, have a refundable ticket or fly first-class.  (Ex:  a committee member receives a quote from Short's for a meeting that is $275.  If that committee member would like to be issued an upgradeable ticket, which costs $425, the committee member would have to pay the difference between the two tickets - $150.)

Committee members are strongly encouraged to book airfares at least 30 days in advance of travel to take advantage of zone and other discounted airfares contracted through the airlines.  Early bookings allow the NCAA to save money by booking in lower inventories than are available closer to the flight date.

Committees are encouraged to book their meetings at least 12-18 months in advance depending on the size of the committee.  As stated earlier, NCAA staff liaisons will work with their respective committee members to plan future committee meetings 12-18 months in advance.  This will allow for committee members to make their arrangements at least 30 days in advance.

Many airlines have severe restrictions on ticket changes.  In addition, stand-by options are also restrictive.  Therefore, it is imperative that any changes be made well before the scheduled departure time of the flight for which a committee member is ticketed.  Committee members should contact Short's as soon as a need for a change becomes known so that the best options can be identified.

The NCAA will cover fees associated with allowable ticket changes (normally $100).  If re-ticketing results in additional airfare, then reasonable costs and scheduling changes will be accommodated.  In an effort to accommodate committee members, the NCAA will cover the change fees associated with changing flight arrangements due to unforeseen circumstances or if a meeting ends early.  The Association feels that by issuing non-refundable tickets to committee members, the change fees that will be issued will still be considerably less than the cost of refundable tickets.  To receive reimbursement for ticket change fees, please attach a copy of the receipt to your statement of expense form.  If you incur a change fee after you have submitted your statement of expense form to the staff liaison, fax a copy of the receipt to the NCAA travel department at 317/917-6758 and include the name of the committee you traveled for and your dates of travel on the cover sheet.

Short's is able to book your reservations if you have back-to-back meetings with an organization other than the NCAA.  If combining Association business with personal or other business travel, Short's can split bill the flight between the two parties.  The NCAA will be billed for all legs of the trip that are Association business.  The committee member must provide another form of payment for the other legs.  (Ex:  A member of the Management Council has an NCAA meeting in Dallas and must travel directly from there to go to a conference meeting in San Diego.  The NCAA will pay the quote of the committee member's flight from campus to Dallas and return.  The committee member is then responsible for the balance of the ticket to get them to their conference meeting.)  Please contact the travel department in advance to discuss any situations in which you do not depart from or return to campus directly before or after the meeting.

The maximum hotel room rate is $170 per night and will be reviewed annually to adjust for inflation.

For 2005-06, Committees must conduct at least 50 percent of the meetings each year in the Indianapolis metropolitan area.  Committees that meet only once per year are required to meet in Indianapolis in alternate years. If a committee meets an odd number of times a year, the number of meetings held in Indianapolis must be equivalent to the average number of meetings held over two years.  Meetings held at the NCAA Convention do not count as meetings held in Indy.  Sports committees must conduct one of their two meetings at the championship site and one at a location of their choice (with this meeting being held every other year in Indy).  The headquarters facilities were designed to include additional meeting facilities and conference center space so more meetings can be accommodated at the national office.  The headquarters allows the opportunity for the committee members to meet at the national office and see what encompasses the daily functions of the national office staff.

The Executive Committee voted at its August 2005, meeting to amend the current committee meeting policy.  Starting in 2006-07, committees must hold 66% of the meetings in Indianapolis.  Therefore, one in every three meetings may be held outside of Indianapolis.  Meetings held outside of Indianapolis must be in a city where meeting costs are comparable to those of Indianapolis.  Comparable cities are defined as being within 10% of the cost of Indianapolis based meetings.  These Indianapolis-like cities are to be drawn from the current list of approved cities.

Occasionally, meetings may be held outside of the list of Indianapolis-like cities, but only with the approval of the travel staff.  If a meeting is held outside the Indianapolis-like cities list, it must still be in a city that is on the approved cities list.  Also, any meetings which will take 4 or more days, including travel time must be held either in Indianapolis or in an Indianapolis-like city.  The reclassified list of cities is below and will be reviewed yearly.

These cities are comparable to Indianapolis and can be used with no prior approval required:

Albuquerque		Nashville
Atlanta		New Orleans
Baltimore		Orlando
Charlotte		Phoenix
Dallas		Pittsburgh
Denver		Portland
Ft. Lauderdale		Raleigh
Houston		Salt Lake City
Indianapolis		San Antonio
Kansas City		San Jose
Memphis		Savannah
Miami		Seattle
Milwaukee		St. Louis
Minneapolis		Tucson

These cities require travel staff approval prior to any meetings being scheduled in them:

Boston		San Diego
Chicago		San Francisco
Colorado Springs		Tampa
Fort Myers		Washington, D.C.
Los Angeles		West Palm Beach
Naples

Mileage reimbursement and parking at the meeting site may not exceed the cost of a non-refundable airline ticket for committee members.  If a committee member wishes to drive to a meeting site, that member may contact the travel department prior to the meeting to obtain mileage.  The NCAA will reimburse up to the cost of the lowest available non-refundable ticket from the committee member's campus to meeting site and return.

The NCAA will not reimburse for rental cars for committee members at annual meetings.  If a committee member wishes to rent a car, the car must be paid for out of the committee member's per diem.  If the mileage from the airport to the meeting site is over 50 round-trip miles, mileage will be paid at the rate of 43 cents per mile.

If the round-trip mileage between the committee member's campus and airport is over 50 round-trip miles, mileage will be paid at the rate of 43 cents per mile.

A per diem of $75 may be claimed for each day or part thereof away from home, except that no more than one day's travel each way may be claimed.  The Association shall pay single-room and tax charges for committee members attending scheduled committee meetings or on Association business.  Incidental charges shall be the responsibility of the committee member.

The NCAA provides several liability and accident-medical insurance coverages for NCAA committee members.  When travel is an element, coverages apply when committee members are traveling directly to and from their home communities and the site of their committee responsibilities.  When a travel itinerary includes interim stops for business not associated with committee duties, NCAA travel coverage applies only during the legs of the trip immediately to or from the committee activity site.

The NCAA's participant accident policy provides up to $75,000 accident medical coverage for a committee member who is injured while performing committee duties or while traveling directly to or from committee activities.  This insurance is available only after all other coverages available to the committee member have been exhausted.  Please note that this insurance does not apply to illnesses.

Certain items on the statement of expense are considered taxable.  This includes honorariums, per diems and allowances.  If your annual taxable income from the NCAA exceeds $600, a 1099-MISC will be issued to you.  This amount should be included on your annual income tax return.  It is the responsibility of the recipient to keep track of actual expenses incurred in order to reduce the tax liability.  It is recommended that you keep the actual receipts.

Committee members may have their reimbursement checks made payable to the university or conference.  If this is desired, it must be noted on each statement of expense that is submitted.  Payments made to the university will not be considered taxable income.

If a committee wishes to hold more than two meetings per year, approval must be received through the governance structure.  This applies to all committees, subcommittees, special committees, or project teams (Bylaw 31.7.2.1.4).  Annually each April, staff liaisons must submit their future year meeting schedule and any requests for exceptions that they may have to the governance staff.

NCAA committee members shall not qualify for reimbursement of expenses if they fail to remain in actual attendance at the committee meeting for its entire duration as announced in advance.  However, committee members with valid reasons for late arrival or early departure may be granted permission by the chair and receive full reimbursement.

Subcommittees are treated the same as committees in regard to committee travel policies.

Once a contract for a meeting has been signed, the travel and insurance manager must approve all contract cancellations.

The NCAA Administrative Services group is responsible for interpretations and exceptions to the travel policies.

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